Energy-efficient signal processing

ABSTRACT

In some embodiments, an apparatus includes first and second signal processing circuitry configured to perform signal processing operations and second signal processing circuitry configured to perform signal processing operations, wherein the second signal processing circuitry includes a smaller amount of processing resources than the first signal processing circuitry. In some embodiments, the apparatus includes one or more storage elements configured to store context information for the second signal processing circuitry and the one or more storage elements are accessible to the first signal processing circuitry. The apparatus may be configured to select one of the first and second signal processing circuitry based on the complexity of input problems, the amount of transmission resources assigned to the apparatus, etc. In some embodiments, intermediate results of from the second signal processing circuitry are used as inputs to an operation performed by the first signal processing circuitry.

PRIORITY CLAIM

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.62/270,224, filed on Dec. 21, 2015, which is incorporated by referenceherein in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present application relates to wireless devices, and moreparticularly to devices that include different instances of signalprocessing circuitry with different processing ability and powerconsumption.

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART

Wireless communication systems are rapidly growing in usage.Additionally, there exist numerous different wireless communicationtechnologies and standards. Some examples of wireless communicationtechnologies include GSM, UMTS (associated with, for example, WCDMA orTD-SCDMA air interfaces), LTE, LTE Advanced (LTE-A), HSPA, 3GPP2CDMA2000 (e.g., 1×RTT, 1×EV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), IEEE 802.11 (WLAN orWi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), Bluetooth, and others.

Wireless communication circuitry typically needs to be able to handlepeak performance modes (e.g., using a full frequency channel and fullresource block allocation). Much of the time, however, lower-performancemodes are utilized. For example, a mobile base station may not be ableto allocate full frequency resources to a mobile device (e.g., based oncongestion) or the mobile device may not need many resources tocommunicate all necessary data during a given time interval. Usingcircuitry that is configured to handle peak performance modes duringthese lower-performance intervals consumes significant power, in someimplementations.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A better understanding of the present subject matter can be obtainedwhen the following detailed description of the embodiments is consideredin conjunction with the following drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary (and simplified) wireless communicationsystem, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates a base station (BS) in communication with a userequipment (UE) device, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a UE, according to someembodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates a signal processing system with a singlehigh-performance instance.

FIG. 5 illustrates a signal processing system with a high-performanceinstance and a high-efficiency instance, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 6 illustrates a situation in which the high-performance instance ofFIG. 5 is in a low-power state.

FIG. 7 illustrates a situation in which the high-efficiency instance ofFIG. 5 is in a low-power state.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method, according tosome embodiments.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary computer-readablemedium, according to some embodiments.

While the features described herein may be susceptible to variousmodifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof areshown by way of example in the drawings and are herein described indetail. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detaileddescription thereto are not intended to be limiting to the particularform disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover allmodifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spiritand scope of the subject matter as defined by the appended claims.

This specification includes references to various embodiments, toindicate that the present disclosure is not intended to refer to oneparticular implementation, but rather a range of embodiments that fallwithin the spirit of the present disclosure, including the appendedclaims. Particular features, structures, or characteristics may becombined in any suitable manner consistent with this disclosure.

Within this disclosure, different entities (which may variously bereferred to as “units,” “circuits,” other components, etc.) may bedescribed or claimed as “configured” to perform one or more tasks oroperations. This formulation—[entity] configured to [perform one or moretasks]—is used herein to refer to structure (i.e., something physical,such as an electronic circuit). More specifically, this formulation isused to indicate that this structure is arranged to perform the one ormore tasks during operation. A structure can be said to be “configuredto” perform some task even if the structure is not currently beingoperated. A “clock circuit configured to generate an output clocksignal” is intended to cover, for example, a circuit that performs thisfunction during operation, even if the circuit in question is notcurrently being used (e.g., power is not connected to it). Thus, anentity described or recited as “configured to” perform some task refersto something physical, such as a device, circuit, memory storing programinstructions executable to implement the task, etc. This phrase is notused herein to refer to something intangible.

The term “configured to” is not intended to mean “configurable to.” Anunprogrammed FPGA, for example, would not be considered to be“configured to” perform some specific function, although it may be“configurable to” perform that function. After appropriate programming,the FPGA may then be configured to perform that function.

Reciting in the appended claims that a structure is “configured to”perform one or more tasks is expressly intended not to invoke 35 U.S.C.§ 112(f) for that claim element. Accordingly, none of the claims in thisapplication as filed are intended to be interpreted as havingmeans-plus-function elements. Should Applicant wish to invoke Section112(f) during prosecution, it will recite claim elements using the“means for” [performing a function] construct.

As used herein, the term “based on” is used to describe one or morefactors that affect a determination. This term does not foreclose thepossibility that additional factors may affect the determination. Thatis, a determination may be solely based on specified factors or based onthe specified factors as well as other, unspecified factors. Considerthe phrase “determine A based on B.” This phrase specifies that B is afactor is used to determine A or that affects the determination of A.This phrase does not foreclose that the determination of A may also bebased on some other factor, such as C. This phrase is also intended tocover an embodiment in which A is determined based solely on B. As usedherein, the phrase “based on” is synonymous with the phrase “based atleast in part on.”

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Acronyms

The following acronyms may be used in the present disclosure.

3GPP: Third Generation Partnership Project

3GPP2: Third Generation Partnership Project 2

APN: Access Point Name

BLER: Block Error Rate (same as Packet Error Rate)

BER: Bit Error Rate

CRC: Cyclic Redundancy Check

DL: Downlink

GBR: Guaranteed Bit Rate

GSM: Global System for Mobile Communications

IMS: IP Multimedia Subsystem

IP: Internet Protocol

LTE: Long Term Evolution

MME: Mobility Management Entity

MO: Message Originating

MT: Message Terminating

NAS: Non-access Stratum

PCC: Policy and Charging Control

PCEF: Policy and Charging Enforcement Function

PCRF: Policy and Charging Rules Function

PCSCF: Proxy Call Session Control Function

PGW: Packet Gateway

PER: Packet Error Rate

QCI: Quality of Service Class Index

QoS: Quality of Service

RRC: Radio Resource Control

SGW: Serving Gateway

SINR: Signal to Interference-and-Noise Ratio

SIR: Signal to Interference Ratio

SNR: Signal to Noise Ratio

Tx: Transmission

UE: User Equipment

UL: Uplink

UMTS: Universal Mobile Telecommunication System

VoLTE: Voice Over LTE

TERMS

The following is a glossary of terms used in this disclosure:

Memory Medium—Any of various types of non-transitory memory devices orstorage devices. The term “memory medium” is intended to include aninstallation medium, e.g., a CD-ROM, floppy disks, or tape device; acomputer system memory or random access memory such as DRAM, DDR RAM,SRAM, EDO RAM, Rambus RAM, etc.; a non-volatile memory such as a Flash,magnetic media, e.g., a hard drive, or optical storage; registers, orother similar types of memory elements, etc. The memory medium mayinclude other types of non-transitory memory as well or combinationsthereof. In addition, the memory medium may be located in a firstcomputer system in which the programs are executed, or may be located ina second different computer system which connects to the first computersystem over a network, such as the Internet. In the latter instance, thesecond computer system may provide program instructions to the firstcomputer for execution. The term “memory medium” may include two or morememory mediums which may reside in different locations, e.g., indifferent computer systems that are connected over a network. The memorymedium may store program instructions (e.g., embodied as computerprograms) that may be executed by one or more processors.

Carrier Medium—a memory medium as described above, as well as a physicaltransmission medium, such as a bus, network, and/or other physicaltransmission medium that conveys signals such as electrical,electromagnetic, or digital signals.

Computer System—any of various types of computing or processing systems,including a personal computer system (PC), mainframe computer system,workstation, network appliance, Internet appliance, personal digitalassistant (PDA), television system, grid computing system, or otherdevice or combinations of devices. In general, the term “computersystem” can be broadly defined to encompass any device (or combinationof devices) having at least one processor that executes instructionsfrom a memory medium.

User Equipment (UE) (or “UE Device”)—any of various types of computersystems devices which are mobile or portable and which performs wirelesscommunications. Examples of UE devices include mobile telephones orsmart phones (e.g., iPhone™, Android™-based phones), portable gamingdevices (e.g., Nintendo DS™ Play Station Portable™, Gameboy Advance™,iPhone™), laptops, wearable devices (e.g., a smart watch, smartglasses), PDAs, portable Internet devices, music players, data storagedevices, or other handheld devices, etc. In general, the term “UE” or“UE device” can be broadly defined to encompass any electronic,computing, and/or telecommunications device (or combination of devices)which is easily transported by a user and capable of wirelesscommunication.

Base Station—The term “Base Station” has the full breadth of itsordinary meaning, and at least includes a wireless communication stationinstalled at a fixed location and used to communicate as part of awireless cellular telephone system or cellular radio system.

Processing Element—refers to various elements or combinations ofelements that are capable of performing a function in a device, such asa user equipment or a cellular network device. Processing elements mayinclude, for example: processors and associated memory, portions orcircuits of individual processor cores, entire processor cores,processor arrays, circuits such as an ASIC (Application SpecificIntegrated Circuit), programmable hardware elements such as a fieldprogrammable gate array (FPGA), as well any of various combinations ofthe above.

Channel—a medium used to convey information from a sender (transmitter)to a receiver. It should be noted that since characteristics of the term“channel” may differ according to different wireless protocols, the term“channel” as used herein may be considered as being used in a mannerthat is consistent with the standard of the type of device withreference to which the term is used. In some standards, channel widthsmay be variable (e.g., depending on device capability, band conditions,etc.). For example, LTE may support scalable channel bandwidths from 1.4MHz to 20 MHz. In contrast, WLAN channels may be 22 MHz wide whileBluetooth channels may be 1 Mhz wide. Other protocols and standards mayinclude different definitions of channels. Furthermore, some standardsmay define and use multiple types of channels, e.g., different channelsfor uplink or downlink and/or different channels for different uses suchas data, control information, etc.

Band—The term “band” has the full breadth of its ordinary meaning, andat least includes a section of spectrum (e.g., radio frequency spectrum)in which channels are used or set aside for the same purpose.

Automatically—refers to an action or operation performed by a computersystem (e.g., software executed by the computer system) or device (e.g.,circuitry, programmable hardware elements, ASICs, etc.), without userinput directly specifying or performing the action or operation. Thusthe term “automatically” is in contrast to an operation being manuallyperformed or specified by the user, where the user provides input todirectly perform the operation. An automatic procedure may be initiatedby input provided by the user, but the subsequent actions that areperformed “automatically” are not specified by the user, i.e., are notperformed “manually,” where the user specifies each action to perform.For example, a user filling out an electronic form by selecting eachfield and providing input specifying information (e.g., by typinginformation, selecting check boxes, radio selections, etc.) is fillingout the form manually, even though the computer system must update theform in response to the user actions. The form may be automaticallyfilled out by the computer system where the computer system (e.g.,software executing on the computer system) analyzes the fields of theform and fills in the form without any user input specifying the answersto the fields. As indicated above, the user may invoke the automaticfilling of the form, but is not involved in the actual filling of theform (e.g., the user is not manually specifying answers to fields butrather they are being automatically completed). The presentspecification provides various examples of operations beingautomatically performed in response to actions the user has taken.

FIGS. 1 and 2—Communication System

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary (and simplified) wireless communicationsystem, according to some embodiments. It is noted that the system ofFIG. 1 is merely one example of a possible system, and embodiments maybe implemented in any of various systems, as desired.

As shown, the exemplary wireless communication system includes a basestation 102A which communicates over a transmission medium with one ormore user devices 106A, 106B, etc., through 106N. Each of the userdevices may be referred to herein as a “user equipment” (UE). Thus, theuser devices 106 are referred to as UEs or UE devices.

The base station 102A may be a base transceiver station (BTS) or cellsite, and may include hardware that enables wireless communication withthe UEs 106A-106N. The base station 102A may also be equipped tocommunicate with a network 100 (e.g., a core network of a cellularservice provider, a telecommunication network such as a public switchedtelephone network (PSTN), and/or the Internet, among variouspossibilities). Thus, the base station 102A may facilitate communicationbetween the user devices (UEs) and/or between the UEs and the network100.

The communication area (or coverage area) of the base station may bereferred to as a “cell.” The base station 102A and the UEs 106 may beconfigured to communicate over the transmission medium using any ofvarious radio access technologies (RATs), also referred to as wirelesscommunication technologies, or telecommunication standards, such as GSM,UMTS (WCDMA, TD-SCDMA), LTE, LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), HSPA, 3GPP2 CDMA2000(e.g., 1×RTT, 1×EV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), Wi-Fi, WiMAX etc.

Base station 102A and other similar base stations (such as base stations102B . . . 102N) operating according to the same or a different cellularcommunication standard may thus be provided as a network of cells, whichmay provide continuous or nearly continuous overlapping service to UEs106A-160N and similar devices over a wide geographic area via one ormore cellular communication standards.

Thus, while base station 102A may act as a “serving cell” for UEs106A-160N as illustrated in FIG. 1, each UE 106 may also possibly comewithin communication range of, and be capable of receiving signals from,one or more other cells (which might be provided by base stations 102B-Nand/or any other base stations), which may be referred to as“neighboring cells.” Such cells may also be capable of facilitatingcommunication between user devices and/or between user devices and thenetwork 100, according to the same wireless communication technology asbase station 102A and/or any of various other possible wirelesscommunication technologies. Such cells may include “macro” cells,“micro” cells, “pico” cells, and/or cells which provide any of variousother granularities of service area size. For example, base stations102A-B illustrated in FIG. 1 might be macro cells, while base station102N might be a micro cell. Other configurations are also possible.

Note that a UE 106 may be capable of communicating using multiplewireless communication standards. For example, a UE 106 may beconfigured to communicate using a wireless networking (e.g., Wi-Fi)and/or peer-to-peer wireless communication protocol (e.g., BT, Wi-Fipeer-to-peer, etc.) in addition to at least one cellular communicationprotocol (e.g., GSM, UMTS (WCDMA, TD-SCDMA), LTE, LTE-A, HSPA, 3GPP2CDMA2000 (e.g., 1×RTT, 1×EV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), etc.). The UE 106 may alsoor alternatively be configured to communicate using one or more globalnavigational satellite systems (GNSS, e.g., GPS or GLONASS), one or moremobile television broadcasting standards (e.g., ATSC-M/H or DVB-H),and/or any other wireless communication protocol, if desired. Othercombinations of wireless communication standards (including more thantwo wireless communication standards) are also possible.

FIG. 2 illustrates user equipment 106 (e.g., one of the devices106A-106N) in communication with a base station 102 (e.g., one of thebase stations 102A-102N), according to some embodiments. The UE 106 maybe a device with cellular communication capability such as a mobilephone, a hand-held device, a wearable device, a computer or a tablet, orvirtually any type of wireless device.

The UE 106 may include a processor that is configured to execute programinstructions stored in memory. The UE 106 may perform any of the methodembodiments described herein by executing such stored instructions.Alternatively, or in addition, the UE 106 may include a programmablehardware element such as an FPGA (field-programmable gate array) that isconfigured to perform any of the method embodiments described herein, orany portion of any of the method embodiments described herein.Alternatively, or in addition, the UE 106 may include one or moreintegrated circuits configured to perform any of the method embodimentsdescribed herein.

The UE 106 may include one or more antennas for communicating using oneor more wireless communication protocols or technologies. In someembodiments, the UE 106 is configured to communicate using either ofCDMA2000 (1×RTT/1×EV-DO/HRPD/eHRPD) or LTE using a single shared radioand/or GSM or LTE using the single shared radio. The shared radio maycouple to a single antenna, or may couple to multiple antennas (e.g.,for MIMO) for performing wireless communications. In general, a radiomay include any combination of a baseband processor, analog RF signalprocessing circuitry (e.g., including filters, mixers, oscillators,amplifiers, etc.), or digital processing circuitry (e.g., for digitalmodulation as well as other digital processing). Similarly, the radiomay implement one or more receive and transmit chains using theaforementioned hardware. For example, the UE 106 may share one or moreparts of a receive and/or transmit chain between multiple wirelesscommunication technologies, such as those discussed above.

In some embodiments, the UE 106 may include separate (and possiblymultiple) transmit and/or receive chains (e.g., including separate RFand/or digital radio components) for each wireless communicationprotocol with which it is configured to communicate. As a furtherpossibility, the UE 106 may include one or more radios which are sharedbetween multiple wireless communication protocols, and one or moreradios which are used exclusively by a single wireless communicationprotocol. For example, the UE 106 might include a shared radio forcommunicating using either of LTE or 1×RTT (or LTE or GSM), and separateradios for communicating using each of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Otherconfigurations are also possible.

FIG. 3—Exemplary Block Diagram of a UE

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a UE 106, according tosome embodiments. As shown, the UE 106 may include a system on chip(SOC) 300, which may include processing elements for various purposes.For example, as shown, the SOC 300 may include processor(s) 302 whichmay execute program instructions for the UE 106 and display circuitry304 which may perform graphics processing and provide display signals tothe display 360. The processor(s) 302 may also be coupled to memorymanagement unit (MMU) 340, which may be configured to receive addressesfrom the processor(s) 302 and translate those addresses to locations inmemory (e.g., memory 306, read only memory (ROM) 350, NAND flash memory310) and/or to other circuits or devices, such as the display circuitry304, wireless communication circuitry 330, connector I/F 320, and/ordisplay 360. The MMU 340 may be configured to perform memory protectionand page table translation or set up. In some embodiments, the MMU 340may be included as a portion of the processor(s) 302.

As shown, the SOC 300 may be coupled to various other circuits of the UE106. For example, the UE 106 may include various types of memory (e.g.,including NAND flash 310), a connector interface 320 (e.g., for couplingto a computer system, dock, charging station, etc.), the display 360,and wireless communication circuitry 330 (e.g., for LTE, Wi-Fi, GPS,etc.).

The UE device 106 may include at least one antenna (and possiblymultiple antennas, e.g., for MIMO and/or for implementing differentwireless communication technologies, among various possibilities), forperforming wireless communication with base stations and/or otherdevices. For example, the UE device 106 may use antenna(s) 335 toperform the wireless communication. As noted above, the UE 106 may beconfigured to communicate wirelessly using multiple wirelesscommunication technologies in some embodiments.

As described further subsequently herein, the UE 106 may includehardware and software components for implementing features and methodsdescribed herein. The processor 302 of the UE device 106 may beconfigured to implement part or all of the methods described herein,e.g., by executing program instructions stored on a memory medium (e.g.,a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium). In other embodiments,processor 302 may be configured as a programmable hardware element, suchas an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), or as an ASIC (ApplicationSpecific Integrated Circuit). Alternatively (or in addition), theprocessor 302 of the UE device 106, in conjunction with one or more ofthe other components 300, 304, 306, 310, 320, 330, 335, 340, 350, 360may be configured to implement part or all of the features describedherein.

Although disclosed embodiments are discussed in the context of a mobiledevice, similar techniques may be used for non-mobile devices, such asbase stations, for example, in other embodiments.

Overview of Problems with Conventional Designs

In many communication systems, such as LTE cellular systems, the radiolink can be used in different performance modes (e.g. with differentchannel bandwidth, throughput, antenna configuration, etc. depending onthe mode). The user equipment typically needs to be able to process forpeak performance so that the radio resources can be used effectively.Most of the time, however, this peak performance not required or notassigned to a particular user by the network scheduler (e.g. because thescheduler needs to optimize the resource utilization to manage capacityof the radio link among multiple mobile devices).

However, designing and implementing a radio user equipment device (UE)for peak performance typically results in a reduced energy efficiencyfor modes of operation where less than the peak performance is required.

In traditional implementations this problem may be addressed by meanssuch as power or clock scaling or clock gating parts of the processinghardware that are not required for a given mode. In theseimplementations, the processing pipeline stages and communicationinfrastructure are still designed (e.g. in processing word length,maximum achievable clock frequency, HW/SW partitioning, etc.) to handlea peak performance case, which may limit the amount of power reductionsthat can be achieved.

Overview of Exemplary Embodiments

In some embodiments, a system has (at least) two modes of operationwhich differ in performance requirements for the receiver and/ortransmitter signal processing system. In very generic terms someembodiments implement (at least) two instances of circuitry for aprocessing stage or processing chain of a mobile radio device. In someembodiments, the two instances are configured to perform the samefunctionality, but on input data sets of different sizes (e.g., performthe same transform but on input matrices of different sizes, decodeincoming radio transmissions but for incoming transmissions of differentbandwidths; etc.).

One larger instance, in some embodiments, implements the radio systemsuch that the peak performance case can be handled, e.g. similar to atraditional implementation. This instance may be referred to as a“high-performance” instance. The larger instance is implemented to meetthe performance requirements to execute the high computationalrequirements of a full-scale problem. This may require the use ofhigh-performance circuitry and processing elements (e.g. memories, CPUcores, etc.). Using this larger instance is typically not energyefficient, however, if only a smaller system or problem needs to beexecuted.

The other smaller instance, in some embodiments, is an implementation ofthe radio system for a reduced performance mode which is optimized forenergy efficiency, e.g. by way of using low leakage transistors, circuitarchitectures operating at lower specified voltage supplies, lowerperformance processor cores, smaller amounts of parallel processingcircuitry, or a combination of those techniques. Speaking generally,these differences may be referred to as a smaller amount of “processingresources” for performing a given set of operations. This instance maybe referred to as a “high-efficiency” instance. In some embodiments, thecontext (state variables, computation results) of the high efficiencyinstance are shared with the high-performance instance.

For many signal processing functions, the computation of a “larger”problem (e.g. one for a wider bandwidth) is structurally the same orsimilar to the computation of the “smaller problem”. The computation ofthe smaller problem may be contained in the larger problem, e.g., theresults of the smaller problem may an intermediate result during thecomputation of the larger problem.

This holds for many signal processing algorithms that can be describedrecursively (e.g. as tail recursion) and those that can be describediteratively (e.g. many channel estimation and decoding algorithms) andpotentially other classes of algorithms. By sharing the context of thehigh efficiency instance with the high performance instance the radiosystem can switch quickly and effectively between a high-efficiency modeand a high performance mode as the high-performance instance cancomplete the computation of the higher performance problems without aneed to re-compute the results that are available from thehigh-efficiency instance.

Exemplary Circuitry

FIG. 4 shows a conventional signal processing system where a set ofinput data X_i is received at an input stage 420 (which may or may notperform actual processing tasks on the input data), forwarded to thehigh performance system 410 which produces a set of output data, y′_iwhich is then passed through an output stage 430, after which the finalresult, y_i is available.

A general block diagram of an exemplary dual mode solution, according tosome embodiments is shown in FIG. 5. In the illustrated embodiment, thehigh-performance instance 410 and a high-efficiency instance 440 areconfigured to operate in parallel in some modes or separately in othermodes (and one or both instances may be clock gated, as appropriate).

In the illustrated embodiment, the input stage 420 delivers respectivesubsets X′_i and X″_i of the input data set X_i to the large system 410and the small system 440. The output stage 430 combines the results y′_iand y″_i of both the large and small system to the final result y_i.Both of those subsystems (including their respective part of the inputand output stages) may be put into a low power mode (e.g. through powergating).

In the illustrated embodiment, the small, energy efficient systemprovides access to its context information, such as certain statevariables, intermediate, and/or end results via context storage element450. The large system 410 may access this context in order to computethe large problem. In some embodiments, the system may realize that itneeds the high-performance instance 410 only after processing some ofthe input data using the high-efficiency instance 440. Using the outputof the high-efficiency instance 440 as intermediate results may increaseoverall performance, in this situation. In other embodiments, theapparatus may intentionally perform a first part of an operation usingonly the high-efficiency instance 440 and a second part of the operationusing the high-performance instance 410 (and/or vice versa). Forexample, in an iterative receiver, the high-efficiency instance 440 maybe used in good signal conditions and terminate after a few iterations.In bad signal conditions, however, processing may be transferred to thehigh-performance instance 410. As another example, switching betweeninstances may be performed based on the allocated number of resourceblocks for a given mobile device.

In some embodiments, a control input line is used to select theprocessing mode. This control can be an external input or an inherentlyderived control state (e.g. if the input stage determines that the inputdata size or other conditions require only a reduced signal processingproblem to be solved). If the information to decide whether the small orthe large system (or both) needs to be executed is contained in thesubset of the input data processed by the smaller system, the context ofthe small system may trigger or may be used to trigger the power statechange (from low power state to active states) of the larger system, forexample.

The larger signal processing problem may be expressed such that theresults of the smaller system are used to compute the result. In thatcase, the access to the context of the smaller system allows the largersystem to be computed more effectively e.g. in order to perform a modechange.

In some embodiments, if the problem/mode requires only the small systemto compute the result, the large system is placed in a low power mode(e.g. power gated). Subsequently, if the large problem needs to becomputed, e.g. because the conditions change so that more iterations ofa channel estimation are required, or because the input data containinformation that demand a mode change, the large system is brought backfrom low power mode. The large system may access the context data of thesmaller system during the computation of the result in order to savecomputation time (because intermediate results had already been computedby the small system).

The large system may also be the only active subsystem e.g. insituations where the mode change between the small and the large systemcannot be performed quickly enough.

In one mode of operation only the large subsystem may be active, e.g.because the system requires the high-performance computation. This wouldbe similar to a conventional implementation of the signal processingsystem. This situation is shown in FIG. 7. In this mode, however, thelarge system 410 may have access to context storage 450.

In another possible mode of operation, the system may initially onlyoperate the small subsystem (operating on a subset of the input data oroperating towards a lower performance requirement or both). Initiallythe large subsystem would be in its low power state. An example of thissituation is shown in FIG. 7.

In a third, mixed mode of operation both systems may operate in a jointpipelined fashion and the large system makes use of the context andintermediate results of the small, high-efficient subsystem to computethe complete result.

The system may be configured to switch between the first, second, and/orthird mode based on external control signals, based on contents of theinput data, based on computation results, etc.

Exemplary Applications

There are many examples of signal processing problems that can bedecomposed in a way that allows such a two (or more)-instanceimplementation. The following examples are discusses for illustrativepurposes but are not intended to limit the scope of the problems solvedin various embodiments. Examples of such problems include matrix-matrixmultiplications or matrix-vector multiplications. For example, theoperation:

$y = {{Hx} = {{\begin{bmatrix}A & B \\C & D\end{bmatrix}\begin{bmatrix}x^{\prime} \\x^{''}\end{bmatrix}} = \begin{bmatrix}y^{\prime} \\y^{''}\end{bmatrix}}}$can be written as:

$y = {\begin{bmatrix}y^{\prime} \\y^{''}\end{bmatrix} = \begin{bmatrix}{{Ax}^{\prime} + {Bx}^{''}} \\{{Cx}^{\prime} + {Bx}^{''}}\end{bmatrix}}$If we interpret the larger problem as y=Hx and the smaller problem as,e.g., s=Ax′, then the following equation describes how the two instancesare related:

s = Ax^(′) $t = {\begin{bmatrix}0 & B \\C & D\end{bmatrix}\begin{bmatrix}x^{\prime} \\x^{''}\end{bmatrix}}$where the equation fort represents the large, high-performance part ofthe system. The full system can then be described by the followingequation:

$y = {\begin{bmatrix}y^{\prime} \\y^{''}\end{bmatrix} = {{{{\begin{bmatrix}s \\0\end{bmatrix}\begin{bmatrix}0 & B \\C & D\end{bmatrix}}\begin{bmatrix}x^{\prime} \\x^{''}\end{bmatrix}}\begin{bmatrix}y^{\prime} \\y^{''}\end{bmatrix}} = {\begin{bmatrix}s \\0\end{bmatrix} + t}}}$

Thus, the high-efficiency instance may generate the y″_i output whichmay then be used by the high-performance instance to solve the largerproblem and generate the result.

Another example signal processing algorithm that can be decomposed insuch a fashion is the fast Fourier transform (FFT) which generally canbe expressed recursively (e.g. decimation-in-time ordecimation-in-frequency) through subsets of the input, the results ofwhich are permuted and combined with complex “twiddle-factors”. Thereare a variety of factorizations of the FFT (e.g. radix-N, mixed radixFFTs) for which the proposed architecture can operate efficiently. If anFFT of size n=n_(i)n_(k) (i.e. X_i is of size n) has to be computed inthe high-performance mode and n_(i) is the size of the FFT to becomputed in the smaller system for the high-efficiency mode, the largesystem can compute the total result y=FFT(x) from the result y″=FFT(x″)of the small system by computing, e.g.

$l = {{\begin{bmatrix}I & D \\I & {- D}\end{bmatrix}\begin{bmatrix}y^{''} & 0 \\0 & {{FFT}\left( x^{\prime} \right)}\end{bmatrix}}P}$where D is a diagonal matrix containing the “twiddle factors”w^(k)=e^(jω/n) and P is a permutation matrix (e.g. the so-called“perfect-shuffle permutation” to re-arrange the even and odd-indexedresults of the partial FFTs).

In some embodiments, similar techniques may be used for encoding anddecoding operations. For example, in some embodiments the number ofinstances of decoding operations performed in parallel (e.g., for polardecoding) may be different for the high-efficiency and high-performancepipes, and one or both of the pipes may be selected depending ondecoding performance and power consumption goals. Further, many decodingtechniques (e.g., using low-density party check codes or turbo codes)utilize matrix operations, which may be decomposed for slowerperformance by the high-efficiency pipe or performed directly by thehigh-performance pipe, for example.

Similar decompositions can be found for general tail-recursive problems(or so-called iterative algorithms). Although various examples hereinutilize results from the high-efficiency pipeline as inputs to thehigh-performance pipeline for the same type of operations, this may notalways be the case. For example, the high-efficiency pipe may performone type of processing and provide results to the high-performance pipefor use as input to a different type of processing.

In various wireless communications systems, matrix operations, FFToperations, etc. may be used in signal processing for transmitting andreceiving signals. In some embodiments, the system is configured tochange between operating modes depending on the sizes of the operationsthat need to be performed (which may be based on the amount of resourcesassigned to a mobile device by the network, for example). In someembodiments, storing the context of the smaller instance may facilitateswitching modes from a smaller problem to a larger problem, e.g.,because the larger instance may use these intermediate results to beingprocessing faster when switching to a higher-performance mode.

In some embodiments, the high-efficiency pipe may be solely utilized forcommunications that are not data-intensive, such as short messageservice (SMS) messages, iMessages, etc. In some embodiments, theapparatus may be configured to select the high-efficiency pipeline basedon the type of application being executed (e.g., an SMS application). Inother embodiments, the apparatus may be configured to select thehigh-efficiency pipeline based on the amount of data received fortransmission, priority of the transmission, whether the transmission istime-sensitive, current channel conditions, etc. In some embodiments,the apparatus may be configured to select the high-performance pipelinefor more data-intensive operations such as channel estimation, etc.

Exemplary Method

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating a method 800 for using differentsignal processing pipelines to perform operations, according to someembodiments. The method shown in FIG. 8 may be used in conjunction withany of the computer circuitry, systems, devices, elements, or componentsdisclosed herein, among others. In various embodiments, some of themethod elements shown may be performed concurrently, in a differentorder than shown, or may be omitted. Additional method elements may alsobe performed as desired.

At 810, in the illustrated embodiment, first signal processing circuitryperforms first signal processing operations and generates contextinformation. The context information may include state informationand/or intermediate computation results, for example.

At 820, in the illustrated embodiment, one or more storage elementsstore the context information. In some embodiments, the one or morestorage elements are also accessible to second signal processingcircuitry. In some embodiments, the one or more storage elements aredual-ported to allow parallel access. In some embodiments, controlcircuitry is configured to detect and avoid any conflicts between thefirst and second signal processing circuitry in accessing particularentries of the one or more storage elements.

At 830, in the illustrated embodiment, second signal processingcircuitry performs second signal processing operations using the storedcontext information. In the illustrated embodiment, the first and secondsignal processing circuitry perform the same processing operations usingdifferent amounts of processing resources.

In various embodiments, the disclosed techniques may allow forpower-efficient processing for smaller workloads and higher performanceprocessing for larger workloads. This may reduce overall powerconsumption (which may in turn improve battery life) while maintainingor improving signal processing performance.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium that stores circuit design information,according to some embodiments. In the illustrated embodimentsemiconductor fabrication system 920 is configured to process the designinformation 915 stored on non-transitory computer-readable medium 910and fabricate integrated circuit 930 based on the design information915.

Non-transitory computer-readable medium 910, may comprise any of variousappropriate types of memory devices or storage devices. Medium 910 maybe an installation medium, e.g., a CD-ROM, floppy disks, or tape device;a computer system memory or random access memory such as DRAM, DDR RAM,SRAM, EDO RAM, Rambus RAM, etc.; a non-volatile memory such as a Flash,magnetic media, e.g., a hard drive, or optical storage; registers, orother similar types of memory elements, etc. Medium 910 may includeother types of non-transitory memory as well or combinations thereof.Medium 910 may include two or more memory mediums which may reside indifferent locations, e.g., in different computer systems that areconnected over a network.

Design information 915 may be specified using any of various appropriatecomputer languages, including hardware description languages such as,without limitation: VHDL, Verilog, SystemC, SystemVerilog, RHDL, M,MyHDL, etc. Design information 915 may be usable by semiconductorfabrication system 920 to fabrication at least a portion of integratedcircuit 930. The format of design information 915 may be recognized byat least one semiconductor fabrication system 920. In some embodiments,design information 915 may also include one or more cell libraries whichspecify the synthesis and/or layout of integrated circuit 930. In someembodiments, the design information is specified in whole or in part inthe form of a netlist that specifies cell library elements and theirconnectivity.

Semiconductor fabrication system 920 may include any of variousappropriate elements configured to fabricate integrated circuits. Thismay include, for example, elements for depositing semiconductormaterials (e.g., on a wafer, which may include masking), removingmaterials, altering the shape of deposited materials, modifyingmaterials (e.g., by doping materials or modifying dielectric constantsusing ultraviolet processing), etc. Semiconductor fabrication system 920may also be configured to perform various testing of fabricated circuitsfor correct operation.

In various embodiments, integrated circuit 930 is configured to operateaccording to a circuit design specified by design information 915, whichmay include performing any of the functionality described herein. Forexample, integrated circuit 930 may include any of various elementsshown in FIGS. 1-7. Further, integrated circuit 930 may be configured toperform various functions described herein in conjunction with othercomponents. Further, the functionality described herein may be performedby multiple connected integrated circuits.

As used herein, a phrase of the form “design information that specifiesa design of a circuit configured to . . . ” does not imply that thecircuit in question must be fabricated in order for the element to bemet. Rather, this phrase indicates that the design information describesa circuit that, upon being fabricated, will be configured to perform theindicated actions or will include the specified components.

Embodiments of the present disclosure may be realized in any of variousforms. For example some embodiments may be realized as acomputer-implemented method, a computer-readable memory medium, or acomputer system. Other embodiments may be realized using one or morecustom-designed hardware devices such as ASICs. Still other embodimentsmay be realized using one or more programmable hardware elements such asFPGAs.

In some embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readable memory mediummay be configured so that it stores program instructions and/or data,where the program instructions, if executed by a computer system, causethe computer system to perform a method, e.g., any of a methodembodiments described herein, or, any combination of the methodembodiments described herein, or, any subset of any of the methodembodiments described herein, or, any combination of such subsets.

In some embodiments, a device (e.g., a UE 106) may be configured toinclude a processor (or a set of processors) and a memory medium, wherethe memory medium stores program instructions, where the processor isconfigured to read and execute the program instructions from the memorymedium, where the program instructions are executable to implement anyof the various method embodiments described herein (or, any combinationof the method embodiments described herein, or, any subset of any of themethod embodiments described herein, or, any combination of suchsubsets). The device may be realized in any of various forms.

Although the embodiments above have been described in considerabledetail, numerous variations and modifications will become apparent tothose skilled in the art once the above disclosure is fully appreciated.It is intended that the following claims be interpreted to embrace allsuch variations and modifications.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus, comprising: first signal processingcircuitry configured to perform signal processing operations including achannel estimation procedure; second signal processing circuitryconfigured to perform the signal processing operations, wherein thesecond signal processing circuitry includes a smaller amount ofprocessing resources than the first signal processing circuitry, whereinthe second signal processing circuitry is configured to begin performingchannel estimation on at least a portion of a set of input data whilethe first signal processing circuitry is in a low power state; one ormore storage elements configured to store context information for thesecond signal processing circuitry, wherein the context informationincludes outputs from the channel estimation performed on the at least aportion of the set of input data, wherein the one or more storageelements are accessible to the first signal processing circuitry; andcircuitry configured to, based on the at least a portion of the set ofinput data, activate the first signal processing circuitry to completethe channel estimation procedure using the outputs of the channelestimation performed by the second signal processing circuitry, includedin the context information, as intermediate results.
 2. The apparatus ofclaim 1, wherein the apparatus is configured to operate in at leastthree modes of operation, at different times, including: a first mode ofoperation in which the first signal processing circuitry is in alow-power mode and the second signal processing circuitry is active; asecond mode of operation in which the second signal processing circuitryis in a low-power mode and the first signal processing circuitry isactive; and a third mode of operation in which both the first signalprocessing circuitry and the second signal processing circuitry isactive and configured to perform the signal processing operations inparallel.
 3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the apparatus isconfigured to switch between ones of the first, second, and third modesbased on communications resources allocated to the apparatus by a basestation.
 4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the apparatus isconfigured to switch between ones of the first, second, and third modesbased analysis of input data to the first or second signal processingcircuitry.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the context informationincludes state information.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein thefirst signal processing circuitry is configured to perform the signalprocessing operations on larger input data sets than the second signalprocessing circuitry.
 7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the firstsignal processing circuitry is configured to use smaller frequencytransform results from the second signal processing circuitry as inputto larger frequency transform operations.
 8. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the signal processing operations include one or more matrixoperations, and wherein the second signal processing circuitry isconfigured to generate an intermediate result in the one or more storageelements that the apparatus is configured to use as an input for alarger matrix operation performed by the first signal processingcircuitry.
 9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first signalprocessing circuitry includes at least one of: a higher-performanceprocessor than the second signal processing circuitry; greater supplyvoltage levels than the second signal processing circuitry; transistorswith higher leakage than the second signal processing circuitry; lowermemory access times than the second signal processing circuitry; agreater amount of circuit area than the second signal processingcircuitry; or a greater number of input ports than the second signalprocessing circuitry.
 10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one ormore storage elements are dual-ported and configured to be accessed inparallel by the first signal processing circuitry and the second signalprocessing circuitry.
 11. A method, comprising: first signal processingcircuitry performing first signal processing operations and generatingcontext information, including beginning to perform a channel estimationprocedure on at least a portion of a set of input data while secondsignal processing circuitry is in a low power state; storing thegenerated context information using one or more storage elements,wherein the context information includes outputs of the channelestimation procedure performed on the at least a portion of the set ofinput data; and based on the at least a portion of the set of inputdata, activating the second signal processing circuitry to complete thechannel estimation procedure using the outputs of the channel estimationperformed by the second signal processing circuitry, included in thecontext information, as intermediate results, wherein the first andsecond signal processing circuitry perform the same processing channelestimation procedure using different amounts of processing resources.12. The method of claim 11, further comprising: using both the first andsecond signal processing circuitry in parallel, in a mode of operation,to perform signal processing operations on a set of input data.
 13. Themethod of claim 11, wherein the generated context information includesstate information.
 14. A non-transitory computer readable storage mediumhaving stored thereon design information that specifies a design of atleast a portion of a hardware integrated circuit in a format recognizedby a semiconductor fabrication system that is configured to use thedesign information to produce the circuit according to the design,including: first signal processing circuitry configured to performsignal processing operations including a channel estimation procedure;second signal processing circuitry configured to perform the signalprocessing operations, wherein the second signal processing circuitryincludes a smaller amount of processing resources than the first signalprocessing circuitry, wherein the second signal processing circuitry isconfigured to begin performing the channel estimation on at least aportion of a set of input data while the first signal processingcircuitry is in a low power state; one or more storage elementsconfigured to store context information for the second signal processingcircuitry, wherein the context information includes outputs from thechannel estimation performed on the at least a portion of the set ofinput data wherein the one or more storage elements are accessible tothe first signal processing circuitry; and circuitry configured to,based on the at least a portion of the set of input data, activate thefirst signal processing circuitry to complete the channel estimationprocedure using the outputs of the channel estimation performed by thesecond signal processing circuitry, included in the context information,as intermediate results.
 15. The non-transitory computer readablestorage medium of claim 14, wherein the design information specifiesthat the circuit is configured to operate in at least three modes ofoperation, at different times, including: a first mode of operation inwhich the first signal processing circuitry is in a low-power mode andthe second signal processing circuitry is active; a second mode ofoperation in which the second signal processing circuitry is in alow-power mode and the first signal processing circuitry is active; anda third mode of operation in which both the first signal processingcircuitry and the second signal processing circuitry is active andconfigured to perform the signal processing operations in parallel. 16.The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, whereinthe design information specifies that the circuit is configured toswitch between ones of the first, second, and third modes based oncommunication resources allocated, to a device that includes thecircuit, by a base station.
 17. The non-transitory computer readablestorage medium of claim 14, wherein the signal processing operationsinclude a frequency transform operation.
 18. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the signal processing operations further comprise one or moreof: a frequency transform, signal decoding, or matrix operations.